72 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [.CHAP. V.
eartlien vallum (rampart, and ditch), was probably imitated by the Celtic tribes from the Eomans;
the Ncrvii of Belgic Gaiil being expressly stated, by Csesar, to have learnt this method from his
legions and from their Homan prisoners of war*. Of the fortified posts, or o^pida, of the
Britons, we have probably the remains in the numerous earth-works, usually called British
camps, which, of more or less rounded form, crown so many of the hills in all parts of the island,
and especially in the south-western counties, the district where Vespasian (A.B. 4J7) conquered
two most powerful tribes and took more than twenty of their oppidaf. Many of these British
camps, as they are not improperly called, though not imsuited for the temporary simimer abode
of a nomadic people, are in situations not likely to have been selected, except for defence
against a hostile force; and doubtless owe their erection to a" period of invasion or intestine
warfare. Such a defensive circumvallation of earth or tm'f was clearly that constructed by the
revolted Iceni (A.D. 50), which was the scene of the decisive victory of OstoriusJ. In the
hilly country of the Silures, the use of stone naturally superseded that of tm-f and earth in the
formation of such camps and ramparts. Caractacus fortified liimself against Ostorius on a
rocky height with a " vallum'^ or "agger" of stones;—"rudes et informes saxorum compages
* * * in modum vaUi pr£Estruit§." This description applies completely to such strongholds or
hill fortresses, surrounded by massy stone fortifications of rude di'y waUing, as are seen in
different parts of the west of England, and of which those of "Worle TTi11 in Somersetshire, and
of Cam Goch in Caermarthenshire, are good examples ||. In some cases British oppida^ in
the first instance apparently intended only as fortresses or temporary residences, became permanent
cities, in the Eoman period. Such was probably Sorbiodunum—Old Sarum—the town
on the dry hill, abandoned on account of its want of water, in the twelfth century, and the
very name of which, significant in the Celtic, reminds us of the words of the historian,—opj]
ayjOta Kat aVuSpa^.
On the summit of. Ingleborough, one of the highest moimtains in Yorkshire, is a considerable
fortification of ingeniously formed dry walling, within which are the foundations of the
huts already referred to**. Juvenalff alludes to the fortresses of the Brigantes,—castella
received text of Xiphilinns (Dion apiid Xipt. lib. Ixii. § 5),
Boadicea is represented as congratulating her people on the
palisades, -walls and ditches by which tbey were defended, as
if of recent acquisition. But the critics, it appears, are now
agreed that the text in this place is defective. Indeed a perusal
of the whole passage must convince the reader that the
historian really wrote precisely the reverse,—a negative having
been accidentally omitted. It is to the camps of the Romans,
that Boadicea referred, and to the fact that when engaged in the
field, the superior courage of the Britons, in her opinion, required
no such defences. Their fortified posts, strongholds or
oppida, seem to have been provided by the Britons for the
shelter of their women and children and cattle; and for use
only in warfare, in the last extremity, when compelled to act
solely on the defensive.
* Ceesar, B. G., hb. v. c. 42. See also what Csesar says
(B. G. lib. vii. c. 29, 30), "primumque eo tempore Galli
castra munire instituerunt;" and compare B. G. lib. viii.
c. 3G.
f Suetonius, Vesp. c. 4.
X Tacitus, Ann. lib. xii. c. 31. "Septum agresti aggere, et
aditu angusto, ne pervius equiti foret. * * * * Tunc dato signo,
perfringunt aggerem, suisque claustris impeditos turbant."
§ Tacitus, Ann. Ub. xii. c. 33, 35. Of a similar description
was the rampart of stones, six feet high, erected by the Gauls,
on the side of the mountain on which Gergovia was situated.
B. G. lib. vii. c. 46.
II Proceedings of the Somerset Archseological and Natural
ffistory Society, 1852, vol. ii. p. 64. The Vitrified Forts of
North Britain are simply strongholds or camps, the walls of
which have been formed of certain species of stones, which
having been submitted to the action of fire, have by this means
undergone a sort of vitrification, and are as it were cemented
together. By this ingenious method, a more permanent vallum
was produced, and such as was but little liable, as were the
stone ramparts of Caractacus, to be pullea down ( " distractsc")
by the Romans, who, under Agricola and Severus, invaded
Caledonia. For Vitrified Forts, see Wilson's " Prehistoric
Annals," &c. p. 413.
^ Dion apud Xiph. lib. bcxvi. c. 12.
** PhiUips's "Yorkshire," 1853, p. 27. plate 5.
t t Juvenal, Sat. xiv. v. 19G.
CHAP. V. ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 73
Brigantmn" ; by wMct, in Ms time, strongholds on the hüls, and in the mountain fastnesses,
such as we have described, can alone be understood. That these were intended only for temporary
or summer residence, seems proved by the smaU size of the huts, {pasulai), the cii-cular foundations
of which ai-e still found within the area of many of them. Within the fortification at Worle
HUl many of the hut-ch-cles are of very smaU size, and the same is the case with others on
Walton Down near Clevedon, also on the Somersetshire coast, in both of which sites they do
not exceed Ave or sis feet in diameter ¡—limited dimensions which could only have afforded shelter
to one or two persons.
What corn they had, Diodorus teUs us, the Britons were in the habit of storing m
subterranean repositories, which, like similar structures among the ancient Germans, served
them perhaps also as winter abodes or as places oi r&Uga,—" mjfugiwm Uemi et receptaculwm
fnigibm*." The curious structures in Scotland, called weems and Picts-houses, with more or less
analogous subterranean buildings in CornwaU and within the raths of Ireland, answer precisely
to the descriptions of the historians; though the sub-tumular Picts-houses may possibly be a
more developed form belonging to a somewhat later periodf. The want of skill in architecture,
"hisoitia adificandi," is sufficiently apparent from the few remains of then buildings which
have come down to us. There is no proof that they were acquainted with the use of mortar or
hewn stones in their buildings ; and what Tacitus says, in these respects, of the ancient Gemans,
may be accepted as eciually appUcable to the Britons and Gauls, prior to the introduction among
them of the art of building as practised by the Romans J. In South Britain, the remains of
indigenous buüdings are limited to the walls of a few hill-fortresses such as have been referred
to, the foundations of huts, and the chambers of dry stone walling, in a few sepulchral tumuli, in
the structure of which an approach to the horizontal arch is sometimes to be traced §. In North
Britain and in Ireland, the remains of this native and rude style of architecture are both
more numerous and important; consisting not only of chambers in tumuli and of the so-called
Picts-houses, but of stone towers of curious construction and known as Piets-towers, duns or
burghs, and which were evidently intended for defence as well as shelter. In these parts of the
British islands the native method had a longer time to develope itself, and only gave way to a
more regular and durable mode of building after the introduction of Christianity in the fifth and
sixth centuries, by Ninian, Patrick, and Columba; by whom, and by their successors, foreign
* Diodorus, lib. T. c. 21. Tacitus, Germania, c. 16. Analogous
subterranean dwellings are referred to, by Virgil, as
common to various northern nations. Georg. lib. iii. T. 376.
j- For descriptions of the iveems (iiamh Gaelic, a cave),
and "earth-houses" or "Picts-houses" of Scotland, see Wilson's
" Prehistoric Anuals," &c., p. 77.
X Tacitus, Mor. Germ. § 16. "Ne ccementorum (squared
stones) quidem apud illos aut tegularum usus; materia ad
omnia utuntur informi, et citra speciem aut delectationem."
The most successful attempts at architecture by the Celts of
which we have any record, arc the walls, curiously constructed
of stone and timber, with which Ccesar, in his description of
Avaricum (B. G. lib. vii. c. 23), tells us that many of the towns
of Gaul were surrounded. There is no evidence of such walls
having been in use in Britain ; the nearest approach we know
of are the stone walls at Ingleborough, but here the structure
is altogether of stone. In the walls of Avaricum, even, no
mortar or cement seems to have been employed. Livy, des
c r i b i n g the walls of Saguntum, in Spain, B .C. 219, tells us that,
as in ancient times, clay was used for filling up the interstices
between the stones, in place of any cement of lime; " csementa
non calce durata crant, sed interlita luto, structurffi
antique genere" (lib. xxi. c. 11). Clay was doubtless used
for this purpose, by the Gauls and Britons, as well as the Iberians,
as to this day it is in the rude architecture of rough
stones of Ilarar, and in the old Galla cities of ciistem Africa.
Burton, "First Footsteps," &c., p. 321.
§ Such as those at Stoney Littleton and Uley in the west of
England, at New Grange in Ireland, and in Caithness and other
counties of North Britain.—Archajological Journal, 1854,
vol. xi. p. 326. The spurious or horizontal arch is also traced
in the Picts-houses and duns of Scotland, and in the "beehive
houses" of Ireland.